WWE Going To Extreme Lengths To Tease AEW Star’s Return

WWE has been accused of going to radical lengths to tease the return of a current AEW star to the company for a match with John Cena.

John Cena is in the final year of his career as a WWE star with his last match set to take place on December 13th’s Saturday Night’s Main Event. It remains unclear who his final opponent will be, but WWE have narrowed the field somewhat by announcing a sixteen-man Last Time Is Now tournament with the winner getting the honour of being Cena’s final opponent.

That tournament kicked off on the November 10th edition of Raw with Sheamus defeating Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev seeing off Damian Priest to progress.

The tournament will continue on SmackDown with Jey Uso facing The Miz and LA Knight taking on a mystery opponent. And it’s that mystery that has led to accusations that WWE is trying to tease the return of an AEW star.

Is WWE Really Teasing Edge’s Return?

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer suggested that WWE’s plan is to tease the arrival of Edge, currently better known as AEW’s Adam Copeland:

Well, I mean, they’re trying their best to try and draw a rating, based on the idea that it’s going to be Edge. That’s the best they can [do].

Suggestions that Copeland could reignite his rivalry with Cena caught fire when Cena paid tribute to the Rated-R Superstar by using a spear with Copeland returning the favour and hitting a five-knuckle shuffle at All Out when he teamed with Christian Cage to defeat FTR.

The reality is that this match was not and could not have happened due to Cena and Copeland’s contractual status. WWE do not have a partnership with AEW, and is increasingly hostile to Tony Khan’s company, relentlessly counter-programming major shows.

The situation mirrors the conversation surrounding Hiroshi Tanahashi’s final match of his career in NJPW. Many fans wanted to see him take on WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura, but instead, he’ll face AEW star Kazuchika Okada. AEW have been painted as the bad guys in the usual quarters online for apparently interfering and stopping Nakamura from being part of the Wrestle Kingdom match. But that simply is not the case, and in reality, it’s fans’ fantasy booking matches that won’t happen and blaming everyone else when they don’t play out.